Snapshot: ‘Yellowballs,’ spotted by citizen scientists, offer a window into star formation

In the quest to unravel the mysteries of star formation, yellowballs could be a powerful new tool. These dusty cocoons — like the one pictured above at left — harbor a cluster of newborn stars so young, they haven’t yet made their mark on their surroundings.
Yellowballs were discovered by citizen scientists participating in The Milky Way Project, part of the Zooniverse citizen science platform. Researchers had initially asked participants to identify “bubbles” of recent star formation, like the